Do You Remember 5th November 1986?

Back in my formulative years one of the first shows I attended was a Mickey Duff and Mike Barratt promotion at the Wembley Arena.

Top of the bill was a middleweight fight between Herrol Graham and Mark Kaylor.

Perched high in the upper tier, Wembley was an atmospheric place that night with Kaylor enjoying the larger share of the support.

Herol ?Bomber? Graham was a fighter schooled by Brendan Ingle, a fight who was so slippery that it is said he would, in his younger days, frequent public houses and ask the punters to try and hit him whilst his hands were behind his back.

It was a style that was to become a trademark of the Wincobank gym, in Sheffield, a gym that saw Ingle also school the legendary Prince Naseem Hamed.

Kaylor, championed by the supporters of West Ham Football Club, due to his allegiance to the Hammers, came up through the amateur ranks before entering the professional game.

A year before the fight with Graham, he?d been involved in an unsavoury incident whereby he?d gotten involved in a pre-fight punch up with the highly talented Errol Christie, something he was later to regret.

The support fights, as I recall, were decent enough but occasionally, those supporting Kaylor livened up proceedings by sending a firework shooting across the floodlit arena.

The main fight went largely as expected. Kaylor tried to get at Graham but the Sheffield fighter?s silky skills made life difficult for the West Ham man. As the rounds progressed, Graham edged ahead on the scorecards and his crisper in and out work was starting to demoralize his opponent.

It looked to be only a matter of time before Graham?s hand was held aloft and proved to be the case in the latter rounds.

Disappointed at their man suffering a defeat, Wembley Arena was a venue filled with frustrated Kaylor supporters venting their frustrations and several fireworks were to wiz over my head as I made my way to the exit.

Perhaps, it was a wise move to not let them know I?d been cheering for Graham throughout the fight.

A memorable night but probably for some bad reasons as well as good reasons!